*****Harper
The world felt too quiet.
Even with the storm raging above, even with the floorboards creaking beneath the masked lady's boots, I could hear my own pulse hammering in my ears, desperate and uneven. My breath caught as her masked face tilted, the faint gleam of her lips twisting beneath the shadows.
Her voice came like a whip, cutting through the tension. "Did you know, Harper?"
I froze. My throat dried, but I forced myself to meet her gaze. "What?"
She tilted her head slowly, savoring my confusion. Then, her words came with venom. "It wasn't the mayor who killed your father."
The world tilted.
Her words slammed into me like a blade. I took a step back, shaking my head before I even realized I was doing it. "You're lying."
She laughed—low, sharp, merciless. "Oh, how sweetly naive you are. I killed him. Your father begged, clawed for his life, but I ended it. And when the truth threatened to come out, I told the mayor to take the blame. He was a fool. He carried the weight of my crime like a dog on a leash."
"No…" My chest constricted. My father's face flashed in my mind—his smile, his warmth, the way he used to grip my shoulder when he believed in me. The thought of that life snuffed out by her hands… bile rose in my throat. "You're lying!" I screamed.
Her mask tilted again, amusement dripping from her every movement. "I don't lie, Harper. Not about this."
Elora's voice broke the silence, shaking but steady with defiance. "You monster…"
The masked lady turned toward her, her boots clicking softly against the floor as she closed the distance. "Elora." Her tone shifted, smoother, almost coaxing. "Tell me where the evidence is. Tell me, and I'll spare you."
Elora's body stiffened. I could see the tremor in her hands, but her eyes… her eyes blazed with resolve. "I would rather die than betray him. Than betray Harper."
The masked lady's sigh came long and sharp, as though Elora had disappointed her. "Such loyalty. Such wasted courage." She raised her hand, fingers grazing the gun at her side.
"No!" I stepped forward, every nerve in me screaming, my voice breaking. "Don't do this. Don't do something stupid. This isn't the way!"
For a fraction of a second, her mask turned toward me—studying, weighing, mocking. Then… chaos.
The room shattered with the deafening sound of four gunshots.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
I screamed.
Time slowed. The acrid smell of gunpowder choked the air. My eyes couldn't keep up, couldn't comprehend. My mother's body jerked, crimson blooming across her chest. Elias staggered, wide-eyed, clutching his stomach as blood poured between his fingers. Elora crumpled last, her lips parting as if she wanted to say my name one last time. Luna was also on the ground blood spilling from her mouth.
"No—NO!" My knees buckled, my hands clawing at the floor as if I could somehow hold the moment together, stop it from unraveling. "Please, no—don't take them, don't take them!"
The world blurred through the flood of my tears. Their bodies lay motionless, broken, silent.
A scream tore from me, raw, inhuman, echoing off the walls until my throat burned. Every part of me fractured—grief, rage, despair flooding together until I was drowning in it.
And then I saw her.
The masked lady stood over them, her gun still smoking, her chest rising and falling like she had just released herself into madness. The sight of her—calm, satisfied, proud—ignited something feral in me.
My fingers found the hilt of the dagger Kael had given me, its weight burning hot against my palm as though it had been waiting for this moment. My sobs turned to growls, my grief to fire.
"You…" My voice shook, not with fear but with rage so violent I barely recognized it as mine. "You took everything from me."
Her masked face tilted again, the faint curl of amusement still lingering. "And I'll take more."
"Not anymore."
Before she could move, I lunged. The dagger cut through the air, guided not by thought but by every shattered piece of my soul. With a scream, I drove it deep into her.
The blade pierced flesh.
She gasped, the sound muffled beneath her mask. Her body stiffened, her gloved hands clawing at mine, but I pressed harder, burying the dagger deeper until I felt the resistance give way.
Blood spread across her clothes, dark and hot against my trembling hands. My chest heaved, my tears falling onto the mask that stared back at me—cracked, broken, faltering.
"Die," I whispered, my voice trembling with fury and agony. "Die for everything you've done."
The dagger was still in my trembling hands, its blade slick with blood. The masked lady staggered back, her breaths ragged and shallow. For a moment, her body seemed to waver, like she was fighting something unseen within her.
Slowly—almost painfully—she raised her hands to her mask. My chest tightened. And then, with one final pull, she removed it.
My world shattered.
It wasn't a stranger beneath the mask. It wasn't some faceless monster I could hate.
It was Aliya.
My best friend.
Her face was pale, her lips quivering as she tried to smile through the blood trailing down her chin. "Harper…" she whispered, voice breaking. "I'm… I'm sorry."
My knees went weak. "Aliya? No… no, it can't be you—" My throat felt like it was closing, words clawing against it but never strong enough.
She shook her head, tears streaming from her eyes. "It wasn't me… it wasn't my choice. The game… the game made me do it." Her voice cracked like fragile glass, every word dripping guilt and sorrow.
I shook my head violently, clutching the dagger tighter. "No… don't say that! You killed them, Aliya! You killed my family!" My voice broke into a scream, raw and desperate.
Her hand reached for me, weak and trembling. "Please… believe me, Harper. I never wanted this. The game… it used me… twisted me…" Her chest heaved with one last painful breath, her eyes pleading. "Forgive me."
"No!" My scream tore from my chest, ripping through the silence. I dropped to my knees beside her, shaking her shoulders as if that would stop what was happening. "Don't you dare leave me like this! Don't you dare, Aliya!"
But her eyes fluttered closed, her body going limp in my arms. My best friend… the girl who had once been my light in the dark… breathed her last against me.
I screamed in horror, the sound so sharp and broken it felt like it tore me apart from the inside as I watched the friendship bracelet we made disappeared from her hands.
There was nothing left for me.
*******
Across the border, Kael had seen everything—the betrayal, the killings, and now Harper cradling the lifeless body of her best friend. His heart twisted in pain.
He tried to cross the witches' realm, but the moment his foot touched the boundary, fire seared through his skin. Smoke hissed from his flesh as the cursed barrier burned him, forcing him back.
"No!" Kael roared, slamming his fists against the invisible wall. His voice broke into desperation. "Harper! Harper, can you hear me?"
But Harper couldn't hear him anymore. Her cries were lost in the endless silence of grief.
Kael's voice cracked, anguish echoing across the border as he screamed her name again and again.
"Harper!"